Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-07-09
A SENSATIONAL CASE.
i's sudden Ending, and the Complete
findfcatiOn of a Slandered Woman.

findfcation of a Slandered Woman.
The celebrated Chatfield case, which has
been on trial in Department Two OF our
superior Court at intervals since January
last, came to an abrupt conclusion yester-
day.
The petitioner, Richard Chatfield, had
closed his case on Thursday, and the re-
spondent during Thursday afternoon and
yesterday morning had put in large
amount OF evidence, oral and documentary,
OF the title of Mrs. Amy E. Chatfield NOW
Mrs. Potter to the valuable tract of land
near Walsh's Station, the proceeds of
which were the principal object of the con-
troVersy. This evidence proved so con-
vlncing that during the recess of the Court
Richard Chatfield and one of his at
torneys, Mr.. Hughes sought an inter
view with Judge Beatty. one of The
attorneys for Mrs. Potter, and an
nounced to him that they had become
adduced, of the rightful claim of Mrs.
Potter to the land and other prop
erty in dispute, that they did not de-
sire to pursue the contest further and pro-
posed, with his consent, to take an order
diminishing the petition without costs.
Alter consulting Grove L. johnson. an
other of Mrs. Potters attorneys. Judge
Beatty assented to this proposition. and on
the reassembling of the Court the order to
dismiss was made on motion of the peti.
toner.
In making the motion to dismiss. Gen
eral Hart, the leading attorney for Richard
Chatheld, stated in substance, that bis eli
ent had instituted the proceeding in perfect
good faith, relying upon the statements
OF old neighbors of his father, and that
he had prosecuted the matter with
no other object than to secure what he be-
heyed to be his rights in his fathers estate
and that having become convinced by the
production of deeds and other documents
the authenticity of which could not be
doubted. that Mrs. Potter was the rightful
owner OF the property which he had sup
posed to belong to his father, he had no de-
sire to prolong the contest or to subject
Mrs. Potter or her family to further trouble
or annoyance. He also stated that although
his client had been lead by exaggerated
and mistaken accounts of the circumstances
attending the disappearance of his father
IN 1871, to believe that he might have been
put out OF the way, he was now satisfied
that the statement always made by Mrs.
Potter that her husband went to Chicago
by rail, Tor the purpose of going thence to
Texas to buy cattle, was true and that there
was not the slightest evidence upon which
TO charge her or any of her family with
even an attempt to injure him.
Judge Van Fleet, in granting the motion,
took occasion to state that he had no doubt
OF the entire good faith of the petitioner
and his principal witness, Mr.. Wolfe. The
impression upon Mr.. Wolfes mind that
the original deed of the land was made to
Mr., and not Mrs. Chatfield, arose natur-
ally from the fact that Mr. Chatfield per-
sonally transacted the business, paving The
money and receiving the deeds in the abb
sence OF his wife, and from the further fact
that, owing to the mistake of the draugbts
man OF the deeds, terms were used imply
ing that the grantee was man, and not a
woman, and that the initials of neither
husband nor wife were at the time known
to MIR. Wolfe. The Judge also expressed
his concurrence in the statement of Gen
eral Hart, that the evidence clearly
showed that H. B. Chatfield started
from Sacramento to Chicago for the
purpose of going to Texas to buy cattle,
and had never returned, and that there was
not particle of evidence worthy of a
moments consideration that his wife. Mrs.
Potter, or any of his children had any sim
lister agency in his disappearance. And so
ends a sensational case the progress and
tendency of which has been made the oc-
casion for imputing to an innocent and
respectable woman the foulest of crimes
and grossest of frauds. No blame seems to
attach to the petitioner for the charges he
was induced to make, and Mrs. Potter is
really under sort of obligation to him for
affording her an opportunity of publicly
meeting and putting down once and for
ever the miserable ISLANDERS that have been
nursed and disseminated for fifteen or six
teen years by a set of idle and malicious
gossips, who it is only just to the fair sex
to say, do not wear petticoats.